Wicked Fate

FIRST CHAPTER

A Devil's return

Ji looked out the beautiful waters as he leaned against his motorcycle. Looming ahead of him is Jeju Island, bathed in the sun's light as the clouds seemed to part in blessing. He had already forgotten how beautiful it is – being away for more than a decade.

"It's still breath taking", he thought to himself as the sound of the ferry boat's machine filled the air, "And this homecoming would have been perfect too... if they aren't all staring at me."

The moment he removed his helmet and allowed them to see his face, a tide seemed to ripple across all the locals in the ferry as hushed whispers circulated. Yes. After twelve years they still all remember him.

"What could he be doing here?" He heard one person close by him whisper.

He refrained from smiling. The answer will surely shock them all.

"Haissshhhh", he exclaimed inside his head, "Twelve years changes nothing."

He could be away from this place for far longer than that and it would still change nothing. Jeju might be big for the tourists who come here but for the locals, it's an island small enough for one person to know who wakes up at 3 in the morning because of loose bowel movement and whose knocking the socks off who. People might be far off from one another but it's rare for a local not to know who he is talking to – families kept tabs on one another.

Such gossip-mongering is one thing he really hated about the island. People always seem to find the time to do it instead of focusing on their own goddamned lives. It wasn't productive in the least and had caused one too many scandals.

He had been in the heart of a few of those so he knew perfectly well.

It isn't a very merciful place and he would rather face a thousand sadistic and irate Hajis than the people here. At least those he knew how to handle that but the people here are another story all together.

He sighed in resignation. There's no going back now, though.

And besides... he doesn't have to stay very long.

***

In a rush

One of the best clinics in Jeju that catered to both the locals and the tourist alike is found near the Tangerine farms that Ji Yong's family own. It is normally staffed with five doctors, a team of thirty nurses, and five of the friendliest receptionists you could find in the whole of the island. However, with one of the doctors and one of the nurses out for a three-month honeymoon, one receptionist recovering from a drastic car accident during an excursion in the main land, and one other nurse too pregnant to fully become functional right smack in the middle of the peak of the tourists surge, everything is haywire. Due to the number of people coming in, just one personnel's absence affected their whole operation.

From outside, he saw that the reception is full of people with all sorts of maladies seeking immediate attention.

After parking his motorcycle, Ji walked in without preamble and went straight for the head doctor's office at the West Wing of the Second Floor.

"Tell Mrs. Joon that I'll be with her in fifteen minutes", his cousin, Choi Seunghyun – the Head Doctor – had his back to him and was leafing through a folder.